Reuters Jun 13, 2011, 10.35am IST
Jonathan Palmer
Jonathan Palmer
Tom Kellerman, a cybersecurity expert who has worked for both the IMF and the World Bank, said the intruders had aimed to install software that would give a nation state a "digital insider presence" on the IMF network.
That could yield a trove of non-public economic data used by the Fund to promote exchange rate stability, support balanced international trade and provide resources to remedy members' balance-of-payments crises.
"It was a targeted attack," said Kellerman, who serves on the board of a group known as the International Cyber Security Protection Alliance. The code used in the IMF incident was developed specifically for the attack on the institution, said Kellerman, formerly responsible for cyber-intelligence within the World Bank's treasury team and now chief technology officer at AirPatrol, a cyber consultancy.
Koo of Dtex Systems (UK) said the recent spate of attacks on large global organisations was worrying because they were targeted, well-organised and well-executed, not opportunistic.
"Perhaps most frightening of all is the fact that these type of attacks could quite easily be directed towards Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) organisations, for example Energy and Water, where the impact of such a breach would have severe, immediate and potentially life-threatening consequences for everyday citizens."
Cyber security experts said it might be difficult for investigators to prove which nation was behind the attack.
"Even developing nations are able to leverage the Internet in order to change their standing and ability to influence," said Jeffrey Carr, author of the book, "Inside Cyber Warfare".
"It's something they never could have done before without gold or without military might," Carr said. CIA Director Leon Panetta told the US Congress on June 9 that the United States faced the "real possibility" of a crippling cyber attack on power systems, the electricity grid, security, financial and governmental systems.
Lockheed Martin Corp, the Pentagon's No. 1 supplier by sales and the biggest information technology provider to the US government, disclosed two weeks ago that it had thwarted a "significant" cyber attack. It said it had become a "frequent target of adversaries around the world".
Also hit recently have been Citigroup Inc, Sony Corp and Google Inc.
That could yield a trove of non-public economic data used by the Fund to promote exchange rate stability, support balanced international trade and provide resources to remedy members' balance-of-payments crises.
"It was a targeted attack," said Kellerman, who serves on the board of a group known as the International Cyber Security Protection Alliance. The code used in the IMF incident was developed specifically for the attack on the institution, said Kellerman, formerly responsible for cyber-intelligence within the World Bank's treasury team and now chief technology officer at AirPatrol, a cyber consultancy.
Koo of Dtex Systems (UK) said the recent spate of attacks on large global organisations was worrying because they were targeted, well-organised and well-executed, not opportunistic.
"Perhaps most frightening of all is the fact that these type of attacks could quite easily be directed towards Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) organisations, for example Energy and Water, where the impact of such a breach would have severe, immediate and potentially life-threatening consequences for everyday citizens."
Cyber security experts said it might be difficult for investigators to prove which nation was behind the attack.
"Even developing nations are able to leverage the Internet in order to change their standing and ability to influence," said Jeffrey Carr, author of the book, "Inside Cyber Warfare".
"It's something they never could have done before without gold or without military might," Carr said. CIA Director Leon Panetta told the US Congress on June 9 that the United States faced the "real possibility" of a crippling cyber attack on power systems, the electricity grid, security, financial and governmental systems.
Lockheed Martin Corp, the Pentagon's No. 1 supplier by sales and the biggest information technology provider to the US government, disclosed two weeks ago that it had thwarted a "significant" cyber attack. It said it had become a "frequent target of adversaries around the world".
Also hit recently have been Citigroup Inc, Sony Corp and Google Inc.